The Final Countdown

Woah, time does fly when you’re having fun. The past few weeks have gone by so fast and I can’t believe that I only have one more week in Chile before I go back to Rio and then to Cuzco, Peru, to hike to Machu Picchu. The past 5 months have been incredible and I’m super sad to be leaving Chile soon. I would love to go home for a few months and then come back if I could. I wish that my friends and family from home had been able to visit me while I’ve been here so that I could share this experience with them.

The recent rain has cleared the pollution and made the Andes look absolutely perfect.

Russell and I at the final dinner

As you can tell, I've already started feeling sentimental about my semester abroad coming to an end. Last week my exchange program had our final goodbye dinner together and it made me feel pretty nostalgic for my first few weeks in Santiago when I was discovering the city and felt like I had so much time ahead of me. It made me realize that no matter how hard I try to explain Santiago or my semester here to other people, no one will understand like the students in my program.

Jewels' and my favorite pose together 

Rae, me, Jewels, Nat, and Mer

Jewels and I with Joaquin, our monitor from the first month 

Since I'll probably only be posting a couple more times, here is the final countdown of things that I want to remember about my trip that have happened recently. 

1. Chugging piscolas

            This is a drink made with pisco [kinda like tequila] and coca cola. I honestly don’t like the taste of it at all, but somehow Mer convinced me a few days ago to chug them with her, which contributed to what happened in #13 [see next post].

2. Salsa dancing at Maestra Vida with creepy older guys

            Even though they were creepy, it was a lot of fun! I had never gone salsa dancing before so Rae taught me before we headed to the Salsoteca, but the guys still had to teach me some too. They were all really good dancers and spun me around a ton and there was an awesome live band playing most of the time! I was also stoked about it because I had the opportunity to practice my Spanish a lot. 

3. Being ambushed by school kids on Cerro Santa Lucia

The group of kids who bombarded us 

            I went to this cerro [hill] with Mer a couple weeks ago cause there’s a castle on top with a breathtaking view of the city and mountains. There’s also a gorgeous yellow building with fountains at the base of the hill. Anyway, when we were on top, this group of kids [they were probably 12-ish years old] surrounded us asking rapid fire questions like where we were from and what our names are while simultaneously commenting on how blue our eyes are and how tall I am. After Mer and I took a photo of them, a few of the boys proceeded to follow us down the hill so that they could get pictures with us. All in all, it was a pretty hilarious incident and we had a good laugh about it.

4. My friend Rae and her magos [magicians]

            Somehow Rae has managed to attract not one, but two magicians in the past 5 months. The second one also works as a real estate agent on the side because he doesn’t make enough money performing magic [fancy that].

5. Spending time at Dublin [clue: it’s not the city]

            Ever since I’ve become obsessed with the show How I Met Your Mother I thought it would be cool to have a bar that all my friends and I hang out at. We found Dublin at the very beginning of the trip and the fact that it’s an Irish pub like MacLaren’s in the show makes it even more legen…wait for it…dary! The last time we were there [last Thursday] I may or may not have shed a couple tears at the realization that it was probably our last night out as a group. 

6. Studying at cobs [Café Observatorio]

            Besides having a “usual” bar, it’s been nice having a usual café too. My friend Julian [aka Jewels] and I stumbled upon it while looking for a place to study in Barrio Lastarria one day. Now, we go there all the time even though the coffee is expensive. It has such an awesome vibe, is really cozy, and they play great music. In fact, Jewels is obsessed with the jazz music they play sometimes. 

A photo I creepily took of Rae studying in cobs

7. Feasting on chorrillana with Nat and Rae

            This dish can also be referred to as a heart attack on a plate. It’s a huge stack of salty French fries topped with beef, onions, scrambled eggs, and pebre [this salsa type stuff]. The picture shows a plate that fed all three of us—it was enormous! And the restaurant itself was pretty crazy. It was like La Piojera actually; the walls and tables and even windows were covered with writing and drawings.

8. Being called hipster and “Miss Barbie” by the girls at the liceo [secondary school] I work at

            One day I decided to wear a llama sweater, jeans shorts, grey leggings and black combat boots and the girls said I was a hipster. Hah. And the Barbie name is self-explanatory.

9. Mer and I watching a super hot Chilean sing Limp Bizkit with his band

This was the best photo I took of the hot Limp Bizkit rapper

            There was a free concert at my university’s campus one night so we spontaneously decided to go. We met up with some Chileans there and our friend Javier even pushed us into the mosh pit so we jumped around and got beaten a bit before going back to the outskirts of the crazy mob. All the bands that played at the concert were made up of students from the school, which we thought was super cool. One of the lead singers of the bands was really attractive and I’ve been looking for him on campus ever since but haven’t found him. Boo.

Chilling at the outdoor concert

10. Rolling on the ground and petting street dogs [pssshhh there’s no such thing as sanitation]

            You can tell from the fact that my family has 4 dogs and 3 cats in San Diego and the multitude of cat photos I’ve taken on my trip, that I love animals. I can’t help stopping on the street to cuddle with a sad looking dog. And yes, once I did even get on the ground to scratch its belly, which made my friends cringe. I haven’t contracted any diseases yet so that’s a good sign jaja [Spanish laugh].


In my next post I'll continue the list :)